ARMS War for Eden by Arseneault Stephen

Author:Arseneault, Stephen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: scifi, adventure, military, science fiction, space, action thriller, series, galactic empire, wormholes, plasma rifle
Publisher: Stephen Arseneault

***

A jump was made to the Rabid system.

Tawn nodded as the wormhole closed behind them. “Smooth.”

Gandy replied, “All systems are showing green. Whoever owned this ship took good care of her. I have a full diagnostic running, and so far we are clean.”

Tawn asked, “You two up for seeing the Retreat? It's a colony exclusively for slugs and stumps. You can visit, you just can't stay. Harris and I both own property there.”

Gandy asked, “Not to be nosy, but where did you and Mr. Gruberg get your money? I haven't heard of any other bios making it rich. And I know you didn't inherit.”

Harris replied, “Business. We deliver goods to the outer colonies.”

Gandy pressed, “What kind of goods?”

A brief silence was followed with a reply. “Well, of recent, we've been shipping building supplies out here to the Retreat. There's a foundation that's supporting the building of homes for slugs and stumps who want to move out here.”

Gandy nodded. “So a whole colony of nothing but you? Will there be little slugs and stumps running around?”

Tawn shook her head. “Not happening. One of their engineering feats was to make us sterile so we weren't producing more of us. I can't mother and he can't father. When the ten thousand of us are gone... we're gone.”

Harris said, “They didn't want to have too much of a good thing. So they took precautions. Anyway, this colony is in one long valley. Probably twenty-five hundred of us living there now.”

Tawn corrected. “Thirty-two hundred and growing. And we have room for everyone.”

Farker nudged Trish. “What the—“

Harris laughed. “Meet Farker. My robotic dog. And my second mate.”

The dog looked up with his usual creepy grin.

Trish reached down to pet his head. “He's adorable! Where'd you get him? I've never seen anything like him.”

Harris replied, “Tawn gave him to me. She didn't want the poor thing. Kind of heartless, that one.”

Tawn rolled her eyes. “It wasn't mine to give. It ran onto a ship I was on just before the ship we were docked with was destroyed. The owner was killed.”

Gandy asked, “How was a ship destroyed?”

Tawn looked at her new first mate. “Boom. It blew up. Can we leave it at that?”

Gandy crossed his arms. “Blew up? From what? Drive failure? A bomb? What?”

Harris said, “We might as well tell them.”

Tawn turned. “What? I think that's a bad idea.”

Harris sighed. “It's gonna come out sooner or later. She undocked just as another ship approached. They blasted the other guy. Her ship slipped away.”

Gandy frowned. “Who would do that?”

Harris replied, “We think it was alien space pirates.”

Trish laughed. “Good one.”

Gandy shook his head. “You don't want to tell me, then fine.”

Trish sat forward. “Hey. There's a panel here on your pet. How do you open it?”

Harris looked down. “Don't know. Never tried. Farker? Can you open the panel for her?”

A small access door slid back, exposing the electronics just behind the dog's shoulder.

“Whoa.” Trish moved closer for a better look. “I don't recognize any of this.”

Harris grinned. “We were told he was one of a kind.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.